We love Dahl!

Roald Dahl is one of my favorite children's books authors.  His books are dark and gruesome and remind me of old children's fables.  They are perfect for my boys.

A couple of weeks ago I read aloud to them Fantastic Mr. Fox and they were completely enthralled for the entire book.  Pictures are few and far between and I wasn't sure it if would hold their attention for our evening book time.  But at the end of every chapter, they would be begging me to continue.  It didn't take us long to finish the book! 

Here is a quote from early on the book, a bit of the gruesome that Dahl is known for:
"One of them shone a flashlight on the hole, and there on the ground, in the circle of light, half in and half out of the hole, lay the poor tattered bloodstained remains of ... a fox's tale."
- Roald Dahl, Fantastic Mr Fox, Ch. 3

Sweet!  Talking about his blood stained tail!  It was shot off by some nasty farmers and the boys talked talked about this part in the book over and over.

They were so happy with the ending I had to snap this photo of them grinning.

We asked our librarian to bring in another Dahl book, James and the Giant Peach, and we have been reading a few chapters a night.  It is quite a bit longer than Fantastic Mr. Fox; I believe it is 130 pages and the other one was just 40 pages.  There are even less pictures in this book, yet the boys sit still and listen attentively.  Cavan asks me to follow the words along with my finger so he always knows where we are in the book

I was that kid who would stay up as late as possible, reading my books by flashlight so my parents wouldn't catch me and tell me to get to sleep.  Now I rarely let myself take a book to bed because I know I will look up and it will be 1am and I have morning children.  Books in bed + morning children is not the best combination for a mama.   The first time I have to confiscate a flashlight from one of them because they are up reading to late will be a proud moment for me.  I am not sure which novel I want to start with them next.  Now that I know they have the attention span to listen to me read them a novel, a whole new world has opened up!  I just don't know where to start!

What were your favorite childhood books?  What should I add to our "must read" list?

Our evening reading time- my favorite time of the day.  Second favorite is right after this when they go to sleep!  HA!